


Just One Game

by TeamBertolt2k15



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Calculus, Fluff, Implied Reiner Braun/Bertolt Hoover, M/M, Request Meme, Tutoring, i'll figure out how to tag one day you'll see, my otp being dorks yeaaah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-11
Updated: 2014-09-11
Packaged: 2018-02-16 23:11:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2287973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamBertolt2k15/pseuds/TeamBertolt2k15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Marco attempts to tutor Jean, and Jean is, as always, a difficult lovable asshole</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just One Game

**Author's Note:**

> This was made by request [justchloeisfine](http://justchloeisfine.tumblr.com) "Jeanmarco college AU where Marco is trying to tutor Jean and work really hard, but Jean keeps goofing of and cutely pissing off Marco? Sorry, I just love these 2 so much and their fluffy AU’s" 
> 
> I love these guys too, they're my OTP and hold a special place in my heart next to reiner/bertl, so this was a lot of fun to write, I hope you like it! ~~I'm actually working on a longer jean/marco work so keep an eye out for that~~ Just some quick clarification, Jean is a freshmen, Marco is a junior, and Jean's shitty professor is actually my shitty professor. 
> 
> Kudos and comments to help me improve my writing are always appreciated a whole bunch! My tumblr is [actual-anime-trash](http://actual-anime-trash.tumblr.com) if you'd like to give me a request for fanfic, there's more info on my blog about that. Alright I'll let you enjoy the fluff!!!

“Thanks for your help, Marco!” Reiner said as he gathered the scattered papers and notebooks from the desk into his backpack, slinging it over one shoulder while putting his calculus two textbook under his arm. 

“Oh, it’s just my job.” Marco smiled at the blonde, scratching at the back of his neck.

“Well you’re definitely the best at it!” Eren came around from his desk and clapped a hand on Marco’s back. “Seriously, the other tutors don’t seem to care.” He was referring to the other tutors that the Erwin Smith scholarship applied to. The Erwin Scholarship covered the cost of tuition for many students on campus, but one of the stipulations were that you had to go to a tutoring session for each of your math classes. The tutors were usually upperclassmen or graduate students, and it seemed that most of them would rather just give out answers than actually explain the content.

Marco chuckled, “Oh, I wouldn’t say the best, not by a long shot.”

Sasha furrowed her eyebrows at Marco as she opened another bag of potato chips, “Nonsense! I would’ve failed calc two without you.”

“I probably would’ve given up.” Bertolt added.

Marco shook his head, “You guys are smart; you just needed a little push.”

Reiner scoffed before throwing his arm around Bertolt’s neck, causing the giant to blush, “More like one hell of a shove, we’ll catch you later!” Reiner waved at Marco, as did Bertolt as they left the room.

“Yeah, see you next week Marco!” Eren said as he left, Sasha leaving with just a wave due to a mouth full of potato chips.

Marco smiled and waved at them before turning around and erasing the white board. It was ten minutes to seven, and he only had one more session to go through. It was his smallest one, with only one other student. Marco couldn’t figure out if it was the fact that it was a late session or that not many students actually had to take calculus four that he had only one person to help, either way that session was always the most trying.

Jean Kirstein was the definition of the word difficult, but Marco couldn’t find himself to be upset with him for more than a few moments. Jean’s endless sarcasm and off-color jokes always had him laughing before directing Jean’s attention back to the problem on hand. His defined jaw line helped keep Marco distracted from the fact they were off topic, but Marco definitely didn’t find him cute. There was nothing cute about the lopsided grin that came on his face whenever he was being mischievous, or the way his eyebrows furrowed in frustration when he encountered a difficult problem, which was almost all the time. 

Although Jean was majoring in electrical engineering, he had more trouble than Marco would anticipate for a freshmen that was smart enough to get to calculus four. 

When he glanced out the window, Marco watched students bundled in coats and scarves walk briskly across the paved walkways while fresh snow fell from the sky. It was February 10 and it seemed as if the snow would never end, not even for one of the more romantic days of the year. Marco sighed as he remembered that he would be, yet again, alone for the holiday of pink and red hearts. 

“Hey, Freckles.” Marco turned from the window to see Jean walking into the room with his usual smirk, ears and cheeks flushed, no doubt from the cold outside. He snatched the red beanie dusted with snow from his head to reveal his two-toned hair, setting it on one of the desks along with his north face and scarf to reveal a grey Fall Out Boy t-shirt.

Marco rolled his eyes at the nickname, still smiling at the blonde, “Think it would kill you to use my real name?”

Jean nodded as he took out his laptop, sitting down in one of the desks. “Yeah, I have to call you either that or Freckled Jesus.”

Marco sat in one of the desks next to him, “Please don’t call me that.”

“Freckles it is!” Jean stated triumphantly.

Marco chuckled before turning his eyes to the Jean’s screen, “So what does Molzon have for you this week?”

“Bullshit.” Jean mumbled as he pulled up the homework website.

“As optimistic as ever, Jean.”

He rolled his eyes before pulling out his notebook, “Well it’s true, he doesn’t teach anything relevant and expects us to know it all.” As much as Marco wanted to scold him for his pessimistic attitude, he had to agree. Having experienced Molzon himself, he knew that he was one of the worst teachers in the math department. 

“Let’s look at the first problem before we decide anything, alright?” Marco reasoned. Jean mumbled what sounded something along the lines of “whatever” and clicked the first problem. Marco read the problem aloud, “Car A is traveling north on I-77 and car B is traveling west on I-85. Each car is approaching the intersection of these highways. At a certain moment, car A is 3 miles from the intersection and traveling at 60 mi/h, while car B is 4 miles from the—”

“No.” Jean slammed the laptop shut and placed his elbows on top, holding up his chin with hands, pouting slightly.

“You can’t already be giving up.” Marco said, poking Jean’s arm.

Jean nodded and folded his arms over his laptop, placing his head in them so that he was looking up at Marco. “I’m dropping out to become the smartest stripper in the business.”

Marco felt himself blush as the image of Jean hanging upside down from a pole flashed through his mind. “You’re not going to be a stripper, you’re going to be an engineer.”

Jean shook his head in the best manner he could, “No, calculus is impossible and I have great abs, stripping is my calling.”

Marco rolled his eyes, “I don’t think that’s the answer.”

Jean stood up suddenly and walked over to the white board and started to write, “Okay, let’s play a game, if you win, then we work, if I win, then we do what I want.”

Marco sighed, “Jean, this is a tutoring session for your scholarship, you’re supposed to take it somewhat seriously.”

Jean turned around and pouted, “Come on, Freckles, just one game of hangman.”

Why Marco found himself unable to say no to that face and agreed reluctantly, “Fine, just one.”

Jean grinned in triumphant, which made Marco blush. He returned to his work on the board, drawing 15 dashes on the board to form four words. “Basic rules, head, body, feet, arms, no extras!”

Marco rolled his eyes, still smiling because he couldn’t deny that he was amused. First he guessed the vowels, getting the head drawn with the letter “u”. Marco got by with the letters “n” and “h” but got another strike with “k”. “Is this a common phrase?” Marco asked.

Jean shook his head and thought a moment before replying, “It’s something that is very true though.”

Marco furrowed his eyebrows as he further considered the puzzle before him, “Is it mean?”

Jean shrugged, “It’s not mean if it’s true.”

“Jean!” Marco scolded.

Jean laughed, “Come on, you’re almost there!”

With a sigh, Marco guessed “j”, “t”, “g”, and “r”, only guessing the “r” right. Now he was down to his last arm with the following on the board:

E R E N I _ A N A _ _ _ O L E

“I don’t know, b?” Marco guessed. Marco didn’t really use profanity, so he was sometimes oblivious to it, even when it was right in front of him.

“Wow, they don’t call you Freckled Jesus for nothing, do they?” Jean shook his head as he drew the last arm, “The answer was ‘Eren is an asshole’.”

Marco picked up the pencil Jean had left on the table and threw it at him, “Jean, that’s mean!”

Jean chuckled as he picked up the pencil and sat back down in his seat, “But it’s true!” Before Marco could argue, Jean continued, “Point is, you lost, and we are going to do what I want.”

Marco looked at the clock, it was only ten minutes into the hour long session and he had already lost control. He sighed, “Fine, but only until 7:30, we have to do some learning.”

Jean groaned but agreed, “I guess that’s fair.”

Marco leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms, “So what do you want to do?”

Jean simply shrugged, “I don’t know, talk I guess. What are you doing this weekend?”

Marco thought to his plans for the weekend, which encompassed Valentine’s Day. “Probably just homework, waste time cooking and watching Netflix.”

Jean raised an eyebrow, “No plans in the name of St. Valentine?”

Marco laughed, “No, I haven’t had a boyfriend in a while.” _Wow, way to make yourself look like a loser._

After a beat of silence, Jean replied, “I find that hard to believe.”

When Marco turned to face him, Jean was staring straight at the white board, the tips of his ears red, from the cold, right? “What about that is so hard to believe? If I’m truly the freckled messiah, isn’t chastity my thing?”

Jean breathed a laugh before scratching the back of his head, “I guess, but Jesus had like twelve guys following him around, and you’re trying to tell me not even one guy is following you?”

Marco shook his head, “Not even one.”

A few more moments of silence followed before Jean stood up, erasing the previous game of hangman from the board. “I want to play another round.”

Marco groaned in protest and slouched in his seat, “You’re going to say something mean about Eren again, aren’t you?”

“It won’t be mean, I swear!” Jean replied as he drew seventeen dashes on the board, punctuated with a question mark.

“Fine.” Marco grumbled. “But you have to give me a hint.”

Jean bit at his lip, “It’s a common phrase.” After a minute of guessing, Marco was doing considerably better than the first round. Only two blanks were left and he had only gotten two strikes. At the moment, the board had the following on it:

_ A N N A _ O O U T O N A _ A T E ?

Marco narrowed his eyes, “Uh…wanna go out on a date?”

“I’d love to.”

Marco blinked at the response, not really catching on until he noticed Jean looking down at his shoes and playing intently with the dry erase marker in his hands while his face started to flush. “Oh.” Marco breathed as he realized what Jean had done, a blush of his own rising against his freckles.

“No take backs.” Jean murmured, his eyes looking up momentarily to give Marco that familiar lopsided grin (okay it _was_ cute, it was so darn cute!), causing Marco to start laughing.

“Okay, uh,” Marco thought a moment, biting at his lip before continuing, “are you free Saturday?”

Jean’s head snapped up, “Oh shit, seriously?”

Marco laughed again before continuing, “Yeah, seriously.”

The entirety of Jean’s face was pink now, “Uh, yeah, that’s fine.”

Marco smiled before pointing at the clock, “It’s 7:30, time to learn.”

Jean groaned, “Do we really have to? You just asked me out, for crying out loud!”

“That’s debatable.” Marco retorted, “Besides, you made a deal.”

“Fine.” Jean grumbled as he made his way back to the desk, opening his laptop back up while Marco just smiled at the disgruntled Jean. He was still difficult, but maybe Marco could excuse the goofing off, it _was_ cute.


End file.
